Vroom Vroom

Photo by Royal Enfield on Unsplash‍ ‍

What do you think about motorcycles? Are they an awesome way to express your individuality and get around on beautiful sunny days? Or terrifying death traps that are completely unwise and unsafe? Is the “rebel on the motorcycle” a good image or a bad one?

I always think of motorcycles when I read the second line of Psalm 68:4-6.

[4]  Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; His name is the LORD; exult before him! [5]  Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. [6]  God settles the solitary in a home; He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land (ESV).

Motorcycles are not in the Bible, but you knew that already! The vroom vroom of the revving engine is not biblically historical; however, that same motorcycle attitude belonged to the charioteer and the camel rider. Each of them was the speed-demon of his day. They zoomed around the desert when everyone else just poked along on a donkey or on foot.

But you know what? God redeems that bad-to-the-bone attitude, so let’s drop the ideas of speed-demon or bad-to-the-bone for a moment. God’s confidence, swiftness, and style, like that of the desert-rider, is not used for deviltry or badness or rebellion. God’s confidence, swiftness, and style is used for rescue, for the fatherless, widow, solitary, and unjustly imprisoned, for example.

In fact, it’s the rebellious who dwell in parched circumstances, going thirsty when rejecting God.

God will take care of our suffering. No suffering we experience seems to be the perfect length. It always seems too long, but God knows exactly how to save through those circumstances. Jesus is our example for that, suffering for us who believe in him, but through it saving us, and after it, delivering us. So we will suffer too from time to time. In those times, look for God to zoom up and rescue. Pray for it. Depend on it. Look for the desert-rider to show up with confidence, swiftness, and style.